Chapter 9: Saint Vianna

If one were to ignore the prison environment, the sight before one's eyes was truly exhilarating.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to ignore.

Xing Yue highly suspected that this Saint lady had already kicked the bucket.

She turned her head and asked the goat-headed demon beside her, “What was her name again?”

“Vianna Cecilia.”

Receiving the goat-headed demon's reply, Xing Yue nodded, feeling that this name was somehow familiar, but she didn't think much of it and asked, “Are you sure she's still alive?”

“His Majesty the Demon King gave an order, so the warden will definitely keep her alive. She might be pretending to be dead to fool you, Princess.”

“Want me to wake her up, Princess?”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

The goat-headed demon received the order, went to the iron-barred door of the cell, spread its hand, and a magic circle appeared in its palm. With a click, the door opened.

It pulled open the iron door, walked into the cell, and raised its fist, as big as a sandbag, to punch Vianna.

“Wait!”

Before the goat-headed demon's fist came down, Xing Yue, with exasperation, called out to stop it. “Didn't we say to wake her up? You were going to wake her like that?”

“Uh... Is there a problem, Princess?”

“There is a problem! Of course there is a problem! If you punch her like that, she'll die!”

“Princess, you overestimate me. She's an eighth-rank priest. How could my punch kill her?”

“No, no, no, you should also look at her current condition. She already looks half-dead. If she takes your punch, I'm afraid she'll go straight to the afterlife.”

Although Xing Yue didn't understand what the goat-headed demon meant by “eighth-rank priest,” she still preferred to trust her own eyes.

A frail, slender woman standing next to a muscular, buff goat-headed demon... The sheer disparity in physique made it impossible for Xing Yue to believe that Vianna could withstand one of its punches.

“Forget it, I'll do it myself...”

“Oh, oh...”

The goat-headed demon obediently stepped aside to let Xing Yue walk in.

It wasn't too worried about Vianna suddenly attacking. The shackles binding her were a kind of magical tool that could block magic circuits. Without magic, she couldn't cast any spells, and naturally couldn't pose any threat to Xing Yue.

Xing Yue came before Vianna. After shifting her gaze away from that large chest, she reached out and gently patted her face. “Hey, wake up.”

“...”

The woman made no move. If not for the fact that Xing Yue could still feel the warmth of her cheek, she would have suspected again that she had already passed away.

Xing Yue withdrew her hand and said, “I brought you food. If you're not dead, make a sound. If you don't, I'll take it that you're dead. Let's go, let's go. Take the food away.”

The chains let out a dull clattering sound.

The motionless figure finally reacted. Her body turned extremely slowly, as if every tiny movement drained the last bit of strength from that body.

A few vague, indistinct syllables squeezed out from between Vianna's lips and fell into Xing Yue's ears.

“Ah...”

“Huh? So you're not dead after all?”

Xing Yue let out a feigned surprised exclamation, then waved for the goat-headed demon to bring the bread and juice.

Carefully breaking the bread into small pieces in her hands, Xing Yue softly commanded the person before her, “Open your mouth.”

Those pale, slightly parted lips first trembled in confusion, then pressed together again, but finally, obediently, she raised her head and opened her mouth wide in her direction, allowing Xing Yue to feed the bread pieces into her mouth.

Watching her start to slowly chew the bread pieces, Xing Yue then brought the juice to her lips and reminded her.

“Juice.”

Following the precedent of the bread pieces, the juice in the cup also flowed smoothly into Vianna's mouth.

After that, Xing Yue fed her one mouthful of bread pieces and one mouthful of juice, finishing all the food she had brought.

“Today's prison meal has been delivered. We'll come again at this time tomorrow.”

Casually patting off the remaining bread crumbs from her hands, after leaving this sentence, Xing Yue called to the goat-headed demon beside her, turned around, and together they left the cell.

Originally, before coming, Xing Yue had thought about whether she could get some information out of her. But now it seemed that she couldn't even speak clearly. Asking would probably be in vain. She decided to let it go for now and wait a few days until she recovered a bit before asking.

After Xing Yue left, the entire dungeon returned to silence. Vianna raised her head slightly. Even though her eyes were covered with a black cloth, she still looked through the iron bars towards the direction Xing Yue had walked at the end of the corridor.

“The demon race's... Princess...?”

“How could this be...”

The barely audible muttering was interrupted by the soft clinking of chains. Vianna's head slowly tilted to one side, returning to its initial state, so still that one couldn't tell whether she was asleep or had entered an eternal slumber.

---

Leaving the dungeon, Xing Yue did not return to her room but went to the collection room.

Earlier, she had heard the goat-headed demon mention that there were many books here. Xing Yue wanted to try to learn about this world's information by reading.

Before arriving at the collection room, Xing Yue had wondered if there would be any restrictions to enter, since she had heard that besides books, it also housed many good items.

But in reality, it wasn't off-limits to outsiders; one could enter and exit freely, without any control.

Thinking that even the dungeon could be left unattended, such a casual management style for the collection room was not surprising. Xing Yue attributed all of this to the Demon King Castle's unique sense of relaxation.

And the ability to foster such an atmosphere was certainly inseparable from Phyllis's strength.

As Xing Yue passed through the ancient artifact section in the collection room, she caught sight of ancient relics like a Hypnosis Pocket Watch and a Time-Stop Hourglass, and came to that conclusion.

Her mother, the Demon King Phyllis, must have terrifying real strength, at least completely unafraid of such heaven-defying abilities like hypnosis and time stop.

As she passed another weapon rack, Xing Yue suddenly stopped and silently looked at the introduction plaque on it.

Hero's Sword

Xing Yue then looked up at the three swords placed on the weapon rack. Each sword had an extraordinary appearance, flowing with a cold, dark luster. Even without moving, an edge of sharp intent emanated from them. Just resting there, they could make one feel a chill in the heart.

Three swords, three silent stories.

The ends of the stories were silently forged into these three swords.

Their owners seemed to have each once raised a sword against the same Demon King, and then, along with their legends, were lost in the annals of myth, leaving only the swords themselves here to accompany the silence.

An inexplicable feeling of suffocation seized Xing Yue's breath. Just by meeting the gaze of those three swords, an indescribable discomfort quietly spread.

Xing Yue couldn't tell the source of this emotion.

To break this somewhat oppressive silence, she averted her gaze and intentionally made her tone seem indifferent, blurting out a casual complaint.

“Are these heroes like the Calabash Brothers? They don't even scout for information first, and just come one by one to deliver themselves?”