There’s an old saying: “When you suspect something but can’t find any flaws, that in itself is a flaw.”
Vylian actually found this saying a bit strange.
After all, how can something that doesn’t exist possibly have flaws? Forcing yourself to nitpick would only come across as arbitrary and deliberate.
Vylian certainly wasn’t going to approach the situation with the mindset that “Anlis has already seen through my identity” and conduct a forceful probe.
Being too aggressive would expose herself in another way.
Vylian’s core plan had always been “Cripple the Hero Plan.” Unless absolutely necessary, she didn’t want to resort to forceful measures against the Hero.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Glen muttered to himself first, then spoke without hesitation, his tone full of certainty.
“There’s no need for a Job Stone test. Of course, I believe in the Hero’s abilities. A Job Stone can’t compare to your power, after all, it was bestowed by the God.”
His words weren’t just empty courtesy.
The Hero’s Information Acquisition Ability was incredibly overpowered.
Unless it was a powerhouse like the Demon King, who was level 999, deliberately concealing themselves, there shouldn’t be any discrepancies.
As for whether Vylian could possibly be the Demon King or something~
That was complete nonsense.
Under the God’s radiant protection, how could the Demon King possibly manage to locate the Hero’s position the moment they were born?
Even the Holy Order couldn’t do that.
At best, they could predict the general location under the God’s Gaze.
Now that the Hero had clearly confirmed Vylian’s identity as the Saintess, there was no need to go through the extra trouble of further verification.
Even if it sounded utterly unbelievable, perhaps the God in the heavens was watching and thought Miss Vylian was truly suited to be the Saintess?
“Hero, you can see abilities, right? Could you tell me what my current abilities are?”
Since she asked, she might as well ask for the full set. Confirming the rest of the information would be good too.
For Anlis, what followed wasn’t too difficult. She just had to recite the contents of the Status Panel truthfully, while precisely controlling her expression to not let the other party see any flaws.
After listening to Anlis recite all the contents and confirming they matched her disguised information perfectly, Vylian’s hanging heart finally settled down temporarily.
Seeing Vylian’s gaze finally shift away from her, Anlis secretly let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly feeling a wave of dizziness, she forced herself to stand straight and smiled slightly. “Um, I suddenly feel a bit… urgent. I’ll excuse myself for a moment.”
Without waiting for a response from those around her, Anlis turned and directly left the hall.
She walked quickly all the way to the bathroom, locked the door behind her, leaned her back tightly against the door panel, and slowly slid down to sit on the floor, panting heavily.
Fine beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
An intense feeling of exhaustion swept over her entire body.
The composure she had forced earlier vanished without a trace.
Her facial expression completely relaxed, leaving only unconcealable panic in her eyes.
Disguising herself under the nose of the Demon King for a long time, relying on the boost from her Strength through Adversity skill, she treated each experience of dealing with probing as a setback. Her acting skills had unconsciously become more and more refined.
But even so, high-intensity disguise was truly draining, especially under Vylian’s scrutiny just now. She had done the absolute best she could.
Fortunately, she successfully fooled her.
Only Anlis herself knew that at that moment, her heart had almost jumped out of her chest.
Once her breathing had calmed down a bit, she raised her hand and pulled up her own panel.
[Status Panel]
Name: Anlis Kachi
Level: 38
Class: Hero
……
Performance Mastery: Prolonged disguise and performance have allowed you to master the knack of controlling your expressions. You can appear more natural in front of others, and even under extreme pressure, you can barely conceal your inner emotions.
Her level had increased to 38, and she had gained a new ability entry: Performance Mastery.
Generally, ordinary skill abilities wouldn’t appear as ability entries on the Status Panel.
For example, no matter how skilled someone was at jump rope, an entry like [Jump Rope] wouldn’t appear.
Similarly, magic like Fireball wouldn’t be recorded either.
For something to appear on the ability panel, it meant that particular ability had been engraved into her talent, becoming an instinctive, subconscious action.
Even if her limbs were severed, her memories forgotten, and her abilities vanished, it would still remain.
Anlis truly hadn’t expected that she had been tormented to the point of writing acting skills into her talent.
This was a bit too abstract.
Probably, the first talent ability other Heroes wrote in wouldn’t be as “cowardly” as hers.
“Sigh, when will this kind of life ever end?”
Anlis leaned the back of her head against the door panel, her eyes filled with helplessness.
Back in the hall, Vylian didn’t think much of Anlis’s sudden trip to the bathroom.
Besides, she had just been pulled aside by the two Archbishops and couldn’t pay attention to Anlis’s matters.
“What is it, Your Excellencies? Is something the matter?”
“Saintess, please don’t call us ‘Your Excellency.'”
Glen quickly waved his hand, then his expression turned serious, his tone becoming more solemn.
“Saintess, since you are indeed the Saintess recognized by the God, please remember and fulfill your mission.”
“Assisting and nurturing the Hero to defeat the Demon King in three years? Don’t worry, I will do my best.”
Vylian still smiled gently, her expression very earnest, but the indifference in her eyes hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
“What? That’s not it at all!” Archbishop Meili immediately cut her off, a hint of urgency in her tone.
“Saintess, defeating the Demon King is the Hero’s mission. For you, that’s just a side task.”
Vylian was stunned, her smile freezing for a moment.
Could it be that the Holy Order had some other secret plan?
She remained silent for a moment, deliberately showing a bit of confusion and hesitation. “Um, as you both know, I was just a little nun from the outskirts before, so… I’m not clear on some of the Holy Order’s internal secrets.”
“…May I ask, what is my mission?”
Glen felt a bit exasperated, but on second thought, there was no need to get angry.
He cleared his throat, his face serious.
“Your mission, of course, is to pursue the Hero, make her fall for you, so that she completely sides with the Holy Order’s camp because of you.”
“Huh?”
Vylian felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
What kind of mission was that?!
Was the Saintess’s role really that abstract?
But looking at these two, they didn’t seem to be joking.
She kept her face from twitching, doing her best to maintain her gentle expression. “You two… have you… made some mistake? Shouldn’t the Saintess… have a more important mission? For example…”
“No, Saintess Vylian, I hope you understand one thing.”
Glen immediately interrupted Vylian’s words, paused for half a second, and then continued. “The Demon King is destined to be defeated by the Hero. At that time, the Hero who can defeat the Demon King will become the undisputed and overwhelmingly strongest being on the entire continent.”
“No faction would ever be willing to make an enemy of such a humanoid weapon, as that would only be courting destruction.”
“Therefore, only adopting a gentler, more conciliatory strategy to draw them into your own faction’s sphere of influence is the optimal solution.”
“Do you think the Holy Order and the Empire have stood unshaken on this land for a thousand years for no reason?”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.