Chapter 2557: Chapter 1712: Intelligence Gathering (The Cat Eating an Orange Under the Covers)

To be honest, Duanmu Huai was speechless when he heard the answer at first, and secondly—well, he really had nothing to say.

After all, he was doing the same thing right now.

And unlike Xingye Ai, Hei Chuan Chi Yin agreed with this even knowing the facts, so he was even more powerless.

But Duanmu Huai still had to ask.

"Why?"

"Because we don’t want to die either."

Princess Noren spread her hands, making a helpless gesture.

"No matter what strength is binding us here, it’s gradually weakening. Given that, I believe we should also make choices about our future. If we hadn’t met the Brave Lord, maybe disappearing in slumber and praying to be reborn sometime in the future to live happily might be a way. But since the Brave Lord is here, we won’t let this good opportunity slip away."

"Ha... Speaking of which, Chi Yin, are you okay with this?"

"Of course."

Hei Chuan Chi Yin nodded vigorously, her eyes firm.

"Even if it means making a deal with the Devil, I’m not afraid."

"You’d better not say things like that, Miss Chi Yin."

However, before Duanmu Huai could speak, Princess Noren chuckled and said.

"I know you want to show your determination, but if you really make a deal with the Devil, the Brave Lord won’t show you any mercy."

"You really understand me."

Duanmu Huai shrugged, just like Princess Noren said, as a Judge, making deals with the Devil would be crossing the line, something that needs to be purified. Even if it’s Hei Chuan Chi Yin, Duanmu Huai wouldn’t hold back. Of course, maybe he’d give her a quick death but he definitely wouldn’t go easy on her because of her determination.

Therefore, if Duanmu Huai hadn’t just confirmed that Fureya and Princess Noren belonged to something akin to Heroic Spirits, he would’ve acted and purified all three.

Unfortunately, there is no Holy Grail War in this world, otherwise, Duanmu Huai really wants to see who could summon them.

"Is it like this?"

Hei Chuan Chi Yin was somewhat surprised.

"Exactly, you can’t say irresponsible things like that."

Duanmu Huai warned Hei Chuan Chi Yin with a serious expression.

"Remember, I will not allow such things to happen, no matter the reason."

For a Judge, reasons are meaningless.

Duanmu Huai had experienced many similar tasks in games before, like once, he was a Judge investigating Subspace Demon invasions in a city. But upon arrival, he was attacked by a group of adventurers, a famous team in that city. They attacked Duanmu Huai because the Subspace Demon promised them that if they killed Duanmu Huai, he would cure the sickly sister of the team’s leader.

So they made a pact with the Subspace Demon and attacked Duanmu Huai.

And naturally, they were wiped out by Duanmu Huai.

The sickly girl also had her soul taken by the Subspace Demons for not fulfilling the contract. Meanwhile, the Subspace Demon widely spread the news of Duanmu Huai killing the adventurer team in the city.

This adventurer team had high prestige in the city, rescuing it many times before, so the city’s people were quite hostile towards Duanmu Huai, completely uncooperative, refusing all his investigation requests.

Determining that he couldn’t find any Subspace Demon clues from these uncooperative citizens, Duanmu Huai quickly made a decision, treating all citizens as heretics cooperating with Subspace Demons, and placed a thermite bomb in the city center.

Then he blew the entire city along with the thousands of inhabitants and the hidden Subspace Demons to pieces.

That’s a Judge.

I couldn’t care less about your shitty reasons, dare to tread the Tribunal’s red line and there’s only one route—death.

"Is it like that?"

After listening to Duanmu Huai’s explanation, Hei Chuan Chi Yin was somewhat surprised.

"I thought Xiao Ai could not care about worldly ethics, morals, or legal concepts..."

"I have my own rules, of course, I didn’t tell you, which is my fault, luckily it wasn’t a big mistake, otherwise it would be another matter."

"Ah, yes... I’m sorry."

Facing Duanmu Huai’s serious and earnest tone, Hei Chuan Chi Yin bowed her head in some frustration.

Ultimately, it’s due to her insufficient understanding of Duanmu Huai—naturally, even if Hei Chuan Chi Yin could sense Duanmu Huai strictly follows some boundaries, without explicit explanation, she couldn’t figure out what rules he’s abiding by.

No matter how remarkable she is, she doesn’t know Mind Reading Technique.

By the way, the Tribunal doesn’t have a saying "Ignorance is innocence".

"Anyway, seeing you here, I’m still quite worried... is your work over there okay?"

Duanmu Huai was used to loafing, everyone knew, but Hei Chuan Chi Yin wasn’t like him, if she didn’t work for a long time, it’d be another matter.

"I’ve already taken leave, and..."

"And?"

"I can’t easily explain..."

Hei Chuan Chi Yin glanced at Princess Noren, who giggled.

"Brave Lord, can you guess how we’re able to come and go here?"

"I truly can’t guess this one."

"Heh heh, you don’t know, do you? Actually, I only learned this earlier—the world we come from is parallel to the world you are currently in, Brave Lord!"

"Is that so?"

Upon hearing Princess Noren’s explanation, Duanmu Huai was somewhat surprised, and Princess Noren nodded and continued her explanation.

After they found Hei Chuan Chi Yin in that world, Princess Noren wanted to understand the situation there, so Hei Chuan Chi Yin bought a world map at their request. Then Princess Noren discovered that her world and this world were like mirror images of each other. Apart from the different directions, both geographical environments were nearly identical.

The method Hei Chuan Chi Yin used to come here was simple: She followed the directions of Fureya and Noren, took a flight to the location of Duanmu Huai’s current place in Hei Chuan Chi Yin’s world, and then Fureya performed a space spell, which felt more like a scene inversion to Hei Chuan Chi Yin—she described it as once she stepped into the lake, she felt gravity completely reverse.

Her body that should have sunk into the lake instead stood in the inner side of the lake surface. Then when Hei Chuan Chi Yin stepped out from the lake again, she had arrived in this world.

Of course, though it’s called a mirror image world, one couldn’t notice it unless comparing the continent’s shape from a space perspective. After all, aside from the continent shapes being opposed, everything else like directions remained the same.

According to Hei Chuan Chi Yin’s explanation, the place she went to was Eastern Europe. Naturally, before leaving, Hei Chuan Chi Yin took a vacation, saying she was going on a long journey. She set everything up here before setting off.

"There are really such things?"

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Huai was quite astonished. Although he knew that since his world and this world were connected in the subspace layer, there should be some linkage, he hadn’t expected it to be like this.

By the way, her luggage should still be at the hotel.

"Won’t the police be alerted?"

"Brave Lord, please don’t worry about that. We attempted it and found that the flow of time is not consistent between the two worlds. Even if we stay here for a year or two, only a few hours have passed in that world."

"I see..."

That makes sense, since Duanmu Huai spent only sixteen years in that world, yet when he returned here, a thousand years had passed.

This is convenient. After all, Duanmu Huai was mentally prepared, but he never thought about how to explain to others if he were to simply disappear.

Looks like there’s no need for explanations now.

"In that case, tell me what you know about the situation. I just returned and haven’t figured out what’s happening yet."

Couldn’t extract anything useful from the locals here, fortunately these two princesses have always been around, they should know some things.

"Alright, Brave Lord."

Princess Noren didn’t disappoint and promptly started explaining to Duanmu Huai.

First, regarding the civilization of this world.

After Fureya and Noren unified the Three Kingdoms, they established a massive empire, and civilization rapidly progressed during this time. By the time they aged, technological development had widely spread, akin to the situation of the first Industrial Revolution within the country.

The reason for emphasizing this development, of course, was due to the immense power of the Iron Titan that Duanmu Huai had shown them. The formidable strength of machinery and gears was deeply imprinted in the hearts of those who fought against the Demon Clan at that time. Consequently, focusing on the development of iron and machinery became one of the basic national policies of the Imperial.

Of course, along with technological progress, magic gradually began to fade from the stage, as magic depended on talent, which was quite random. Fureya and Noren sisters were typical examples, with Fureya being the Magic Brave Hero while Noren couldn’t use magic at all.

When they chose successors upon aging, technological explosion exerted pressure, leading to conflicts between old forces of magic protection. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Fureya naturally stood with the Magic Faction, while Noren was undoubtedly with the Technology Faction.

The outcome was evident; seeing Fureya complaining tearfully to Duanmu Huai made it clear who ultimately won.

After that, the empire continued to grow, but royal power wasn’t eternal. Eventually, internal oppression led to rebellion, overthrowing the empire, which then fragmented into several small countries.

With the fall of the empire, the sisters naturally switched to a spectator mode.

Afterwards, conflicts mainly arose among various human nations, oscillating between peace and warfare. Civilization continued to advance, and later on, they indeed reached a modern level of exploring outer space.

However, it ended there.

In simple terms, a world war broke out.

For the reason behind it, neither Fureya nor Noren were clear. They only knew everyone fought ferociously, weapons and bombs were recklessly deployed, and ultimately, the world approached the brink of destruction.

It’s after that when these dragons appeared.

To the current humans in this world, the Dragon Race is an ancient threat that emerged hundreds of years ago. But Noren was certain that before the world war, there were no dragons at all. According to her speculation, the Dragon Race might be some biochemical weapon, possibly involving research on magician bloodlines.

Unlike Duanmu Huai’s world, although magic in this world declined before the technological trend, it didn’t completely vanish. A few mages still existed, though their spells were generally not very powerful.

"This is troublesome."

After hearing Noren’s explanation, Duanmu Huai frowned slightly.

It seems that resolving this matter won’t be so easy, huh?