Chapter 921: Chapter 921: Dramatic Turns and Chaotic History
Actually, I think it might not be a wise choice to visit Silvia’s little sweet shop with Sandara, because I obviously accidentally forgot about the peculiar slowness of that silver-haired mole rat—
That fellow doesn’t know how long it would take to prepare snacks enough to feed Sandara, and before then, Sandara might end up starving herself. Of course, it’s more possible that she’ll just open her mouth and devour everything in Silvia’s little shop.
Well, we’re already at the shop entrance, thinking about this doesn’t help.
“Ding-a-ling…” The pleasant sound of wind chimes rang as the glass door of the shop was pushed open and Sandara and I walked into this always quiet sweet shop, finding that, as expected, there was no one inside.
Silvia’s sweet shop usually has very few visitors because that silly silver-haired mole rat foolishly opened her shop on the military blockade line. She has special privileges, so it’s completely fine for her to do this, but regular residents of Shadow City don’t dare to casually approach the military blockade line without reason, and the nearest place, the Shadow Fortress, is full of Imperial Soldiers and the like, none of whom would be regular clients for a sweet shop. Silvia can only expect customers of two types: students from the Military Academy, especially Sister Misakas, who occasionally come to buy sweets, but the academy is quite far from here, so the Misakas rarely visit; the other type is the few mass-produced Xyrin Hosts in the base, possibly due to some unexplained logic mutation, some mass-produced Xyrin Hosts in the Shadow Fortress express a unique interest in sweets, making them the only regular customers at Silvia’s shop.
However, at this time, no one would be visiting for sure.
Silvia’s shop is like a solitary haven, even though it’s set on a nerve-wracking military blockade line, it always has a soothing and peaceful air about it. The small shop is spotlessly clean, the windows facing the street alley are remarkably bright, and gentle sunlight spills in, allowing light spirits to gleefully dance on each small table and round stool. The instant the chimes rang, not only did it fail to break the serene and tranquil atmosphere, but it complemented the warm and leisurely vibe surrounding us.
Behind the long counter facing the shop door, the silver-haired girl was jumping to clean the tall glass display case, which housed the shop’s pride and a few specially-made snacks. Though Silvia wasn’t short in stature, she still had to exert effort to reach the top of the case, so she could only hop around to accomplish this arduous task. Her slightly clumsy actions and occasional self-motivating “hey yo” were quite amusing to watch, but Silvia herself was completely unaware, simply engrossed in her fulfilling work, her skirt fluttering.
“Shouldn’t we tell her the ladder’s leaning right on the wall beside her?”
Sandara tugged my arm and whispered.
“She’ll nine times out of ten fall off.”
I thought for a moment and replied confidently.
Then Sandara fell silent.
Silvia’s hearing is sharp; she must’ve heard the door chime just now, so Sandara and I found a spot near the entrance by the window to sit, waiting for Silvia to react.
I was worried that Sandara might go berserk from hunger before Silvia responded, as I didn’t have much faith in that mole rat’s reflex time. In fact, I sometimes wonder if Silvia’s leisurely reflex nerves are the result of combining all of the mass-produced Raven reflex arcs because her typically slow nature has reached an unfathomable degree. But luckily, Silvia was relatively quick this time, finally realizing there were customers in the shop before Sandara could start munching on the table, and stopped bouncing in front of the display, smiled and turned around slowly, softly saying, “Ah~~ Customers—— Eh? You guys——”
Talking to Silvia requires patience, the only consolation is her slow tone being quite pleasant, not enough to aggravate you. I pointed at Sandara, urgently laying out this pressing problem before Silvia: “Nothing else to say, Sandara’s hungry, prepare some filling snacks for her… No need to prepare, just grab something from the display counter… Oh forget it, I’ll get it myself…”
Before Silvia even reacted, I had finished speaking. Fearing that by the time she served the snacks Sandara would start biting, I decisively greeted her and went to the counter to grab things myself. It took a while before Silvia said with a smiling face: “Ah—— Chen, you’re really impulsive——”
By then, Sandara had started licking the fourth plate.
“Would you like something to drink?” After a while, Silvia placed a lighter pastry in front of me, her face lit with a warm smile, unhurriedly asking.
“Anything will do,” I said while glancing at the wolfing Sandara, “Get her an orange juice before she chokes.”
Waiting for Silvia to prepare the drinks, I couldn’t resist looking at Sandara: “Hey, no one’s gonna snatch it, eat slowly.”
“The most perfect way to enjoy desserts is to eat them within three bites!” Sandara replied without lifting her head, despite her rapid eating speed, miraculously, she maintained her appearance and articulateness. I thought this table-sweeping Sandara was the cutest, her face full of bliss, and the unguarded behavior in front of trusted ones was adorable, not forgetting the tiny bit of cream at the corner of her mouth— I quickly helped her wipe it off, like taking care of a little girl, this action must be swift and precise because if you’re a tad slower, you might get bitten, the maneuver akin to rescuing a cricket from a set of fast-spinning gears, difficulty rating at least 9.0. Hence, I’m the only one likely able to wipe Sandara’s face while she eats.
“Such good rapport,” Silvia’s voice came from beside, the silver-haired girl placed two drinks before us, her gaze scanning between me and Sandara, “Are you flaunting in front of me?”
I was just about to take a sip of the drink when I felt something wasn’t right, suddenly realizing, it seemed Silvia spoke quite fluently just now.
“Bellavilla?” I was surprised looking at the silver-haired girl sitting nearby, eating guest snacks and boldly sipping both my and Sandara’s beverage, realizing her demeanor was worlds apart from that timid, slow silver-haired mole rat. Instantly, I recognized this must be the other personality in Silvia’s soul, the Former Fallen Emperor Bellavilla has awakened.
Sandara swallowed her food, her eyes fixed on Silvia… Bellavilla, filled with curiosity: “You can awaken freely now?”
“Silvia awakened me,” Bellavilla snapped her fingers, directly teleporting the snacks from the back counter to Sandara’s table, swapping out the empty plates, then playfully gazed at the latter, “But you, I don’t think a Xyrin Emperor would eat to get food on her face.”
“Eating with my beloved around, getting food on my face is my privilege,” Sandara nonchalantly waved her hand, “Me and Ah Jun are just having small tacit interactions~~”
“Tch, I knew you two were showing off in front of me,” Bellavilla glanced at the two of us, unlike the honest and slow Sylvia, this one was quite sharp-tongued and somewhat wicked, but she’s nice, “You ran into some trouble in another world?”
I just knew that Bellavilla waking up must have a purpose. Although she said she was awakened by Sylvia, if that not-so-smart silver-haired mole hadn’t given her a hint, how would she know when to wake her up? Now it seems Bellavilla is interested in our battle in the ruins world.
“Fought a battle with your former colleagues,” Sandora didn’t hide anything, and briefly explained the skirmish in the ruins world to Bellavilla. Although she used to be a Fallen Apostle, she’s now one of us, and during the Big Nebula catastrophe, she’s done quite a bit, so she’s quite trustworthy. “Although we won eventually, the battle damage wasn’t small, and we’re now fully repairing those warships and replenishing new soldiers. By the way, since you’re awake, there might be something you know—look at this.”
As Sandora spoke, she opened a holographic projection in midair. The projection showed a black-red military insignia, which was the mark on the Fallen Apostle battleship that fought fiercely with the Imperial Army.
“Do you recognize it?” Sandora looked at Bellavilla hopefully, “You had a fairly high position in the Fallen Apostle army. Which unit’s mark is this, and how large is it within the Fallen Apostle army? What’s its status there?”
Sandora’s questions are what we’re anxious to know now. We must roughly deduce the power comparison between the Fallen Apostles and the current New Empire, and the breakthrough point is the enemy fleet from the fierce battle with the Imperial Army in the ruins world. Although Lin Xue used her prediction ability to roughly judge that the enemy belongs to a relatively large force within the Fallen Apostle camp, the more detailed information isn’t easy to foresee.
In comparison, it’s likely Bellavilla has the precise intelligence.
“Harlan and Zhadom’s mixed third army.” Bellavilla casually glanced at the holographic projection in midair while eating her snacks. “It’s not surprising. After those two swallowed several small armies and reorganized their forces, they became the most active military force in the Fallen Apostle camp. They’re present in essentially every major external action, and Harlan is quite the opportunist… in unexpected raids and various high-risk, high-reward actions, he’s always the first to charge.”
Bellavilla knows indeed!
I felt a surge of excitement. Bellavilla’s awakening is just too timely. It seems ultimately, for breakthrough intelligence on the Fallen Apostles, we need to rely on this former Fallen Emperor.
“Harlan? Zhadom?” Curious after hearing two unfamiliar names, I couldn’t help but ask, “Are they also Emperors?”
If the opponents were two emperor-level Fallen Apostles, then encountering such a large scale enemy raid in the ruins world might just be expected. That battle was extremely perilous and said these two are definitely formidable enemies. Talking about this, suddenly there are two additional enemies, and both are emperor-level right off the bat. Even though I knew from the start the Fallen Apostles are surely a huge threat, I still feel a headache.
“Only Harlan is an Emperor, Zhadom is Harlan’s strongest general,” Bellavilla said with a serious tone, “A bit troublesome. Before becoming a Fallen Apostle, Harlan was an extremely powerful Xyrin Emperor with complex powers. No one really knows all of his abilities. Zhadom, however, is a war maniac like Pandora, constantly fully armed at all times. But no matter how strong individually, they have their limits. What’s most dangerous about these two is their army… the mixed third army has massive numbers, astonishing combat effectiveness, and the most production bases, making them a crucial large corps in the Fallen Apostle camp. This time, they suffered severe losses, but Harlan and Zhadom didn’t appear on the battlefield themselves, which means you haven’t hit their core. Thus, they might be back in no time… Hmm, it’s odd, Zhadom usually appears personally on the battlefield, but not this time.”
As Bellavilla spoke, her brows slightly furrowed, “Based on your descriptions and my last memories, estimating roughly the Imperial Army might have taken down half of Harlan’s forces this time. Even in the Fallen Apostle camp, that’s severe battle damage. After falling, Harlan turned into a complete opportunist. He carries out such high-risk actions likely for a bigger reward, but ultimately what he aimed to seize was just a warship wreck? What makes that wreck so special, worth such a large-scale mobilization by him.”
“Then take a look at this, it’s something we got from the Ruins World, an insignia left by the Imperial Army from 700,000 years ago after a battle with Visca,” I recalled wanting to ask Bellavilla about it before but had forgotten, so I took out the armor fragment with the golden circular mark from my personal space, “The wreckage we seized from the battleship has the same mark, can you recognize it?”
“This?” Bellavilla’s eyes widened, staring intently at the metal fragment in my hand, “That guy… so it’s true, looks like Harlan came for the wreckage, how dramatic—can you guess whose it is?”
Sandora and I didn’t speak, staring straight at Bellavilla, seeing how long this somewhat mischievous guy could hold out. It took less than half a minute for Bellavilla to surrender: “Alright, alright, you two are really in sync—I’ll give you a scare then, this insignia isn’t of the Imperial Main Fleet, but belongs to a special independent unit, led by… Ocam.”
When Bellavilla finished speaking, Sandora and I were stunned.
“Ocam?” I stared dumbfounded at the metal fragment in my hand, “The one who died at the Holy Hall Library?”
Bellavilla nodded: “That’s him. One of the top scientists of the Old Empire Era, this insignia is unique to his army, I wouldn’t mistake it.”
“A scientist’s private army?” I found it hard to believe, “And it was sizable enough to crush Visca’s Destruction Army; was Ocam doing scientific research or wielding military power back then?”
It’s unfathomable, I’ve had many guesses about this golden circular mark before, but never imagined it was Ocam’s insignia, that cunning Fallen Apostle killed in the Holy Hall Library; even after death, he continues to haunt me with all sorts of troubles. What’s even more unbelievable is that Ocam, despite being a scientist, had a massive fleet during the Old Empire Era! Visca’s Destruction Army was defeated by his fleet, what was that about?
If scientists knew martial arts, even hooligans couldn’t stop them, but Ocam had a fleet, how many squared hooligans would that be?
“Typically, researchers aren’t interested in armies, nor would they have their own direct troops, much less their own military insignia, but this is just the regular case,” Bellavilla took the metal fragment from my hand, showing a thoughtful expression, “Some scientists of the Old Empire were unconventional, having dual roles as researchers and military commanders, which isn’t contradictory, because the Xyrin Apostle’s principle of action prioritizes racial interests and victory. As long as they have the capability to secure victory, scientists could also become military commanders, and many times the armies led by researchers possessed even greater combat power, because they would boldly equip their warships with various dangerous experimental weapons, daring to challenge any battlefield environment as long as they could gather first-hand new weapon data. Ocam was a quintessential example…”
I deeply agreed with Bellavilla’s statement, having witnessed the bottomless nature of Xyrin Technicians’ research, with Eternal Level monstrous ships and Pandora’s Single Soldier Fortress arsenal being their masterpieces. This group, doing Edison’s work but with a Hitler’s heart, data shows that most Imperial Scientists’ labs have the same alert level as the Abyss Frontline. Their favorite pastime was causing a major explosion in their research labs—in fact, I’ve long thought that one of Taville’s major reasons for running around doing many mass projections was to save time on reviving herself, as many of her studies were too insane…
Bellavilla was silent for a few seconds, seemingly reminiscing about very distant past events, then he handed the metal fragment back to me. “A long, long time ago, during the Old Empire Era, Ocam’s army suffered a heavy defeat and returned, losing nearly two-thirds, and reportedly lost his most important research ship. That incident had a significant impact in the 103rd Sky Zone, even I heard about it. In retrospect, perhaps that was his first encounter with Little Visca… It was also due to that massive loss that Ocam’s army never recovered its former strength, until the great catastrophe struck and the Old Empire collapsed. His old troops simply reorganized with mine and Savi’s forces, going silent afterwards. You see, I told you, it’s just too dramatic.”
“Wait, wait,” I felt overwhelmed, hastily waving my hand to pause, “It’s a bit confusing, let’s sort it out—the timeline, 700,000 years ago the Old Empire was still around, Ocam was a scientist with an army, then in the Ruins World, he encountered Visca’s Destruction Army. The two clashed, Destruction Army was defeated, Ocam’s army lost a third and retreated. Subsequently, he never had the chance to rebuild his army. Soon after, a catastrophe hit the Old Empire, the Abyss outbreak, he, you, and Savi were all turned into Fallen Apostles, and Ocam’s remaining troops were absorbed into your forces, thus his army was disbanded. Later on, Visca was accidentally captured by the Fallen Apostles, also infected by the Abyss, became part of your faction, and was together with you three… Then here’s the issue, Ocam doesn’t recognize Visca, Visca can’t recall where she saw this insignia! What’s going on?” (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (), your support is my greatest motivation.)