“All his life, my father had been a hero to many, including me… You can imagine how shocked I was when I found out that instead of the powerful man I had always envisioned him to be, he was in fact, one of the weakest. I had never seen him cry out in fear the way he did that night… Once I did, however, I began to waver slightly. What exactly did my father experience for him to end up that terrified? What on earth took place during the pledge of the holy water? All these questions made me adamant about investigating the pledge! My fear of failure has been the reason why I keep wanting to improve my strength!” added Christopher, his eyes now bloodshot. “…So what you’re saying is, according to your father, those who didn’t return aren’t dead? Are you saying that they were brought someplace else instead?” replied Gerald, bewildered. The incident resembled Mila’s disappearance a lot. After all, the victims of both incidents had received some kind of item—the token of the holy water, in

“What’s wrong, beauty? Don’t you have any money with you?” said an idler as he and a few others began walking toward her. The moment one of them attempted to touch Giya’s chin, she immediately dodged. Seeing that, the other idlers immediately grabbed Giya's arms, intent on harassing her. Realizing that struggling wasn’t getting her anywhere, Giya found a chance to bite down hard on one of the idler’s fingers! A shout of pain was heard as the idler who was bitten held on to his badly injured finger. Seeing that, none of the others dared to make any other moves on her. This was because all of them saw the murderous intent in her eyes. However, due to her prior exhaustion and the sudden adrenaline rush, Giya was now feeling extremely dizzy. As a result, she soon ended up toppling to the ground, barely conscious. Understanding that Giya barely had any energy left in her to even get up, the idlers turned around to face another person who was now walking toward them. One of them

“…No. This is too much of a coincidence! I’m not sure what sort of tricks Alice is up to now, but all I remember is me giving her a few hundred thousand dollars to let her lead the life she wished!” muttered Gerald to himself as he frowned slightly. This sudden turn of events was honestly quite strange to him. After all, ever since he had gotten tangled up with the Moldells’ disputes, he had focused most of his life on training, rarely ever getting involved with city life. To think that such an incident would happen not long after he finally returned to his old lifestyle… While it was already extremely hard for him to accept the fact that he now had a daughter, it was even harder to believe that the mother was Alice! Knowing that both Giya and Lyra would become aware of this soon as well, Gerald found himself being cornered into an increasingly difficult situation. ‘…Bah! There’s no use thinking about it! I’ll just wait for the paternity test results!’ With that, Gerald enter

“…Lyra? Ah…” said both Daryl and Dylan rather awkwardly. Daryl himself now realized how uncharacteristically he had been behaving today, though it’s not like he could help it. After all, he was fortunate enough to meet his great-granddaughter before participating in the pledge of the holy water, an event which he knew he wouldn’t be able to return alive. Since God had answered his prayers for a chance to meet Mable, one could easily imagine how excited Daryl had been once he found out that the baby was his great-granddaughter. Now that Lyra was here, however, he instantly felt ashamed. After all, Lyra was the legal daughter-in-law of the Crawford family. From what he had heard, Lyra had even been the sole person who was in charge of all the Crawford family’s affairs—regardless of whether they were major or minor—for a great number of years. “…Oh! I’m not too sure either… I just thought that this child was really cute so I brought her over!” replied Daryl in an increasingly awkw

Back when he first saw the mural in the Divine Tomb, Gerald had learned that the woman in white was inspired by the old beggar to separate the coffin from the deity. However, nobody knew where the woman in white’s tomb was. Now that Alice had mentioned an ancient tomb, Gerald couldn’t help but make a connection with that. Had the woman in white’s coffin been carried to the south of the ocean after the separation? Was it currently buried in the king of the ocean’s tomb? “…Where’s the king of the ocean’s tomb located?” asked Gerald after pondering for a while. In response, Alice told him everything that she knew. Gerald himself paid close attention to everything she said. After all, he honestly felt that it was quite necessary for him to head there to investigate for himself. For all he knew, the woman in white could very possibly be buried within the king of the ocean’s tomb. While Lyra had first dreamed of that woman standing by a river within that miasma-filled forest, Geral