Mage Manual-Chapter 641 - 510: Beneath the Flute’s Melody, Above All Living Beings!
Chapter 641: Chapter 510: Beneath the Flute’s Melody, Above All Living Beings!
"So, the price of making a wish is the Gospel, and by destroying the Gospel, one can also conveniently reap an additional granted wish... It was just a little bit short, really such a pity."
After listening to Ash’s retelling, Hanna showed a regretful expression and spread her hands, saying, "In the end, I still accomplished nothing, and my plans have fallen through."
Ash noticed the desolation in her expression and suddenly remembered something, "Hanna, you..."
"It’s okay. Taking an all-or-nothing gamble means accepting the loss." Hanna smiled and clapped her hands, saying, "But since Diya can maintain her self-consciousness, there’s no need for us to leave, right? That’s great. I’ve heard that other realms don’t have a Gospel as developed as ours. If we end up in some primitive forest still under tribal rule, I can’t accept a drastic downgrade in living standards—"
"Liss." Ash looked at Diya, who was sitting on the throne, and asked seriously, "Do you have a way to lift the Gospel’s curse on the Doran family?"
"The Gospel’s curse on the Doran family?" Nona immediately reacted, and Qinna also looked towards them, "What’s that about?"
Diya looked at Hanna intently, felt the intense Wave emanating from within her soul, and her expression shifted slightly, "The Gospel indeed loathes those with Doran blood. If left unchecked, in a few years, the Gospel’s loathing will rise to a level that could affect the Gospel System until it stops interfering, which will only happen when the Dorans are completely extinguished."
The Senheiser sisters were hearing about this for the first time, and Nona was so astonished that she froze – the reality of being despised by the Gospel was so beyond imagination and so terrifying that her mind simply shut down—can you imagine someone being loathed by the sun, scorned by water, shunned by the air?
Suddenly, Qinna approached and knelt before Diya, asking respectfully, "How many points does it need to ease the Gospel’s disdain for the Dorans?"
"Qinna!" Hanna reached out and grabbed the Elf Clan Leader’s shoulder, trying to pull her up, "What’s the point of putting on this act in front of me?"
Qinna didn’t budge, how could a mere Two-winged Mage possibly move her, she said calmly, "The Weaving Festival has ended, and according to the Contract, you are no longer Hanna Doran but Hanna Senheiser, and you will return to live with the Senheisers. The Six Emblems will not abandon any clan member."
"Family, family, always about the family!" Hanna mocked, "Then you and I can cancel our Contract right now, and I’ll still be Hanna of the Doran family, no need for you to waste family assets to save an outsider."
"Little Hanna, sister, can you both not..." Nona couldn’t help but interject.
Just as they were about to argue, Diya was somewhat hesitant, but when she saw the compassion, pity, and resolve in Ash’s eyes, she immediately spoke, "I can suppress the Gospel’s hatred for the Dorans, but I have one condition!"
Hanna was taken aback and immediately asked, "What condition?"
She had been ready to resign herself to her fate—though fleeing from the Gospel was an option, no head of the Doran family had ever fled from the Gospel, and naturally, neither would she. If she truly wanted to flee the Gospel and survive by whatever means necessary, she wouldn’t have needed to stay outside the Void Realm gateway to capture Ash and the others; she could have passed directly through the gateway to another realm.
She did not flee from the Gospel, chiefly because she feared that even if she successfully reached another realm, she was very likely to be hunted down as an invader from the Exotic Realm by the local powers, much like the treatment Ash and the others received upon their arrival in the Kingdom of Gospel. Perhaps that would be an even shorter life than staying in the Gospel.
However, beyond that, the true reason Hanna was willing to be buried in Gospel was her strong sense of pride in the Gospel.
Perhaps some might find it odd, asking why she would go to such lengths to seize the Divine Lord’s wish to destroy it if she felt proud of the Gospel? But the more Hanna resented the Gospel now, the more she had been proud of it when she first encountered it. Breaking the family curse was indeed Hanna’s initial motivation, but to destroy this system and rebuild a new future was also Hanna’s lifelong aspiration.
Heads of the Gospel system from generation to generation had almost the same idea—as it was precisely because they loved the Gospel that they would blaspheme against it.
So when the plan to assassinate the Princess failed utterly and her ideals were shattered, Hanna was already in complete despair. Although later, Diya protected them and arranged for them to flee to other realms to avoid persecution, if it weren’t for Banjee and Ash, Hanna would never have agreed to leave the Gospel.
Now that Diya could maintain her self-consciousness, and there was no need for Ash and Banjee to leave, naturally, she would not be willing to flee to another realm to fend for herself. She’d rather enjoy the remaining time to its fullest.
Therefore, when Diya said she could suppress the Gospel’s malice and break the Doran’s curse, Hanna’s heart reignited with new hope.
Not just because she could live on, but because she saw in Diya the possibility for her ideals to be realized!
"I want you to cancel your Contract with Ash." Diya glanced at Igula and Harvey and added, "And Auntie Bokin and Uncle Harvey’s Contracts."
"No problem."
Hanna agreed immediately. With her reward, the "Tongue of Relief," as long as the parties involved reached a consensus, the Contract could be verbally canceled. After canceling the Contract, she approached Diya and asked earnestly, "Can you really suppress the Gospel’s malice?"
Diya nodded, "I can. The Gospel’s malice towards the Dorans is actually a negative influence that affects the operation of the Gospel System. If I require the system to function normally, it will naturally stop targeting the Doran clan."
"In addition to that, can you exert more influence on the Gospel System?" Hanna’s eyes brightened, "Like reducing the Gospel’s impact on an individual’s life, granting more autonomy to individuals; breaking up the conglomerate families, ones like Belladett and the Six Emblems should have been managed long ago..."
"Hanna, you rambunctious moth!"
"Hanna, don’t forget you are also a Senheiser now!"
Qinna and Yvalin gasped in shock and hurried over to interrupt Hanna’s slanderous talk, quoting scriptures to elaborate on how the Six Emblems and Belladett are too big to fail.
Only then did Ash and the others belatedly realize something—that within the entire Yisu Dynasty, and possibly over a thousand years since the Gospel System was born, the first Empress with strong emotional inclinations had come into being.
Although she was willing to give up what might be her only chance at the "Wish Machine" for the sake of all beings in the realm of "Evangelism," it did not mean she was the epitome of a fair and just saint. On the contrary, she was definitely a girl with a bit of a temper, who had people she disliked and liked, and was even very emotional.
If the former "First Gospel" was a heartless blade hanging over the heads of all beings, then Diya was a nightmare—or opportunity—within everyone’s reach. If she disliked you, you might find yourself slipping on banana peels as you walked; but if she liked you, there’d be an unlucky fellow cushioning your fall even if you tripped!
Thunder and rain are all graces from the sovereign!
Diya’s command was the fate of all beings!
Even if she could make the Gospel System tremble out just a speck of dust, it would be a mountain on anyone’s head!
No wonder Qinna and Yvalin were so nervous—if Diya really listened to Hanna’s slander and said casually, "The weather’s getting cold; it’s time for the Six Emblems/Belladett to go bankrupt," no one could save them.
Thinking this, Igula couldn’t help but glance at Ash beside him. If Diya was the supreme "Empress" of Evangelism, then Ash was at least the top jester with enormous clout, and offending him could be even worse than offending Diya—after all, Diya couldn’t leave the "Imperial Palace," while Ash, that walking disaster, could go anywhere.
He was truly "below Diya, above all beings"!
Compared to apocalyptic disasters, the current Ash was the real "Source of Chaos".
Anyone who offended him was in for a taste of "enemy of all Evangelism."
However, Ash clearly had no awareness of his skyrocketing status. He greeted Harvey and curiously asked, "Why do you seem to have gotten thinner?"
"Weight loss," Harvey laughed. "I transferred the fat to someone else."
Igula went pale upon hearing this, Ash seemed confused, but he was soon distracted by the baby carriage in front of him.
He crouched down and looked at the blue-haired infant inside, hesitated, and asked, "Is this Banjee? Why has he gotten so small this time? He could at least walk on his own last time, and now... can he turn over by himself?"
"He overused his ’Miracle’."
Hanna came over and squatted beside him, saying, "This is the first time I’ve seen Banjee in an elderly state... After the Miracle melted away, he turned into this, and it’s also my first time seeing Banjee in an infant state."
"So, how long will it take for him to recover this time?" asked Ash. "Child Banjee took two days to return to normal last time; I’m afraid this might take a week?"
"It will take seventeen years."
"Seventeen... years?" Ash blinked, doubting he had heard the unit of time correctly.
"He completely melted himself away." Hanna reached out to tease little Banjee, who grabbed Hanna’s finger with his own, making cooing noises. "He’s unable to recover now, only able to go through being a baby, child, youth, and adult again."
"What about his memory then?"
"It might come back, but he’ll definitely lose a lot," Hanna shrugged. "When he comes across people, events, or things from his past, he’ll surely feel a sense of déjà vu."
Ash looked eye to eye with little Banjee before suddenly saying with a laugh, "Well, this time it’s your turn to take care of him."
"Yeah, the Doran family owes Banjee too much." Hanna carefully picked Banjee up, "I was worried about being in another country and not being able to take care of him, but now that we can stay, at least he has a stable environment to grow up in."
Little Banjee struggled to get out of Hanna’s hold, and Ash let out a chuckle, reaching out to take Banjee into his own arms, laying him across his arm. Instantly, Banjee stopped squirming, his legs dangling by Ash’s hand as he looked around curiously.
"Hey?" Hanna blinked, "Is it okay to hold him like this? Won’t he fall?"
"This is called ’airplane hold’. It’s actually quite stable and can effectively soothe gas and crying."
"Why are you so skilled at this?"
Recalling his experience of often going home and helping carry his fussy nephew, Ash smiled knowingly: "I’ve taken care of children before."
Hanna watched him with little Banjee, and although she was always proactive and decisive, she suddenly became shy, stammering, "Since the ’Weaving Festival’ is over, and, well, I’m not great with babies, Ash, could you—"
Suddenly, Ash’s’ Gospel Book popped out on its own, radiating a soft green glow.
Everyone was startled, thinking the "Weaving Festival" wasn’t over. But upon closer inspection, they realized their own "Gospel Books" were still.
With a swish!
The next second, countless vines burst out from Ash’s "Gospel Book"!
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮
