Chapter 268: Chapter 266: Benovia Attempts to Sculpt a Statue of Rose

Today is the day before the start of term at the Divine Magic Academy.

At this time, many students from all over Ista have already returned to school in advance, and the campus is gradually becoming lively.

Hilia originally planned to take the border patrol car from Southern Border City this morning, arrive at the school in the evening, rest for a night, and report in the next day.

The timing was very strict.

As a result, City Lord Puniel insisted she use the Directional Teleporter, which caused her to arrive at the Huijin City Directional Teleporter early in the morning.

The city’s Directional Teleporter cannot directly transport to the school’s Teleporter; the Divine Magic Academy’s Teleporter is only open to certain areas and is a one-way teleportation from the school to other places.

The reason for this is that two-way teleportation requires payment at both points, typically collected at the starting point, with half handed to the Holy Court, which then allocates it to the target point.

But the Divine Magic Academy doesn’t need to earn money this way, so it only connects one-way to other cities, and any usage is paid directly to the local city upon arrival.

So, for Hilia to return to Huijin City, she could only appear in the Directional Teleporter built by the Ista Royal Family and then return to school from there.

"I thought I arrived quite early, but I didn’t expect there to be so many people at school already."

Hilia, with her backpack on, expressed her amazement as she watched the hustle and bustle within the school.

Rose chuckled, "You’re actually the last to arrive; the other Holy Daughter candidates have already returned."

"Why did they come back so early?" Hilia was puzzled.

"Who knows." Rose smiled.

With a Spiritual Scan, he could see Benovia carefully cleaning the statue inside that secret little house.

It seemed she didn’t let anyone else manage it and relied solely on herself for the cleaning.

Rose noticed a detail.

The statue, which originally had no face, seemed to have been re-carved, but the Spiritual Scan couldn’t directly discern the details, only a rough sense was possible, requiring a closer look to know what it had been carved into.

"Could it be that Benovia altered it to look like me?" Rose pondered.

His interest piqued, he said to Hilia, "After you put your things away, go and say hello to Benovia."

Hilia, momentarily stunned, nodded, "Okay."

The girl quickly took her belongings to her dormitory with a Magic Puppet, without even cleaning it, then retrieved the Magic Puppet and left the dormitory.

Hilia had been to Benovia’s little house once and knew the location. However, before going there, she first contacted Benovia with her bracelet to confirm she was there before heading directly over.

Shortly after, Hilia arrived outside Benovia’s secret little house and knocked on the door, from within came a voice.

"Who is it?"

"It’s me, Hilia."

"Oh, come in." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Benovia opened the door and allowed Hilia to enter.

Once inside, just as Hilia was about to say something, she suddenly noticed the change in the statue.

She frowned and looked at the statue in surprise, "This statue..."

Benovia smiled, "I once received guidance from a God in a dream, so I tried to draw God’s appearance from memory, but unfortunately, the visage of God is not something I can fully recall, only a hint of divinity can be restored."

Hilia carefully examined the statue, which actually hadn’t changed much, frowning, and asked Rose in her mind, "Lord Rose, why do I feel like this statue resembles you a bit?"

Rose chuckled, "Really? I remember your Magic Puppet also wanted to look like me, do they seem alike?"

Hilia shook her head, "No, the face of the Magic Puppet I made doesn’t have the divinity that this statue presents."

Rose always showed a very easygoing manner with Hilia, never displaying the majesty as a God, so when she tried to create a face for the Magic Puppet in Rose’s image, it bore no resemblance to the statue before her.

The only similarity between the two is that they seem like Rose, but in actuality, are not alike at all.

Gods naturally possess the ability that unless they acknowledge it, the statues carved out, even if done by mimicking them, can’t have their features carved out.

It’s not just Rose; even the Twelve Main Gods are like this.

All Gods are like this.

Rose does not require faith, and apart from the sole statue erected when he conquered the entire continent, he has never agreed to the construction of any other statue.

And that statue, I suspect, has long since been destroyed by the Twelve Main Gods.

Rose would not consent to Hilia carving his visage into a Magic Puppet’s likeness—what would that imply?

Similarly, he wouldn’t permit Benovia to construct a statue.

The reason he had Hilia come over was to confirm if she was attempting to build her own divine statue.

Now, he was certain she indeed was.

It’s just that, having only met once, Benovia could only achieve a slight resemblance to divinity based on that faint memory, insufficient even for Rose to sense it.

"Did you receive a response from the God? Congratulations," Hilia said.

She repeatedly glanced at Rose in the Spiritual Space, hesitating to speak.

Rose knew what she wanted to ask.

But he remained silent.

Previously, he had deepened Benovia’s connection to the Divine Realm and helped her in the final moment, adding a limitless mana regeneration buff; afterward, Benovia had found Hilia to ask if the God worshipped by the Hiro Association was Rose.

Combining this with the faint divinity of Rose perceived from the unknown statue, Benovia’s words made her suspect.

Benovia said, "Though you did not admit it, I also asked many from the Hiro Association for confirmation, they all said they didn’t know, but I feel it is Him, the one who helped me. Hilia, you seemed quite surprised when you first saw the statue, do you know something?"

As she finished, she winked at Hilia.

Hilia hastily shook her head, "I don’t know, it’s just that your statue seems to have become quite interesting."

Rose is the sole designated Evil God by the Gods, not one of those lesser Evil Gods who can falsely claim that title.

As the evil villain written into the Holy Word, accidentally summoning an Evil God is something best kept unknown to anyone!

Don’t ask, because the answer is "I don’t know."

Although suspecting that Benovia connected with Rose, Hilia was determined not to disclose it voluntarily.

Unless Rose appears proactively, like he did that time with Jonathan.

"Interesting?" Benovia was hardly surprised by Hilia’s words. She nodded, gazing at the statue with fascination, "I find it quite interesting too that I should ’dream’ of that God."

Seeing Benovia in such an infatuated state, and her object of fascination not even being among the Holy Court’s Gods, Hilia reminded, "Benovia, you are now a candidate for the Holy Court’s Holy Daughter."

"It doesn’t affect me."

Hilia: "..."

All right then.